Francis Nicholls, better known by his stage name Frankie Knuckles (January 18, 1955 – March 31, 2014), was an American DJ and record producer.[2]

Knuckles was born January 18, 1955[1][3] in The Bronx, New York; he later moved to Chicago. He played an important role in developing and popularizing house music in Chicago during the 1980s, when the genre was in its infancy. Due to his importance in the development of the genre, Knuckles was often known as "The Godfather of House Music."[4] Chicago named a stretch of street and a day after Knuckles in 2004 for this role. His accomplishments earned him a Grammy Award in 1997. Knuckles was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame in 2005 as recognition for his achievements.

While studying textile design at the FIT in New York, Knuckles began working as a DJ, playing soul, disco, and R&B at two of the most important early discos, The Continental Baths and The Gallery, with childhood friend[5] and fellow DJ Larry Levan.[6] In the late 1970s, Knuckles moved from New York City to Chicago,[7] where Robert Williams, an old friend was opening what became the Warehouse. When the Warehouse club opened in Chicago in 1977, he was invited to play on a regular basis, which enabled him to hone his skills and style. This style was a mixture of disco classics, unusual indie-label soul, the occasional rock track, European synth-disco and all manner of rarities, which would all eventually codify as "House Music."[8] The style of music now known as house was of course named after a shortened version of the Warehouse.

Knuckles was so popular that the Warehouse, initially a members-only club for largely black gay men, began attracting straighter, whiter crowds, leading its owner, Robert Williams, to eschew membership.[8] He continued DJing at the Warehouse until November 1982, when he started his own club in Chicago, The Power Plant.[9]

Around 1983, Knuckles bought his first drum machine to enhance his mixes from Derrick May,[10][11] a young DJ who regularly made the trip from Detroit to see Knuckles at the Warehouse and Ron Hardy at the Music Box, both in Chicago.[12] The combination of bare, insistent drum machine pulses and an overlay of cult disco classics defined the sound of early Chicago house music. A sound which many local producers began to mimic in the studios by 1985.

When the Power Plant closed in 1987, Knuckles played for four months at Delirium in the United Kingdom. Chicago house artists were in high demand and having major success in the UK with this new genre of music.[13] Knuckles also had a stint in New York, where he continued to immerse himself in producing, remixing, and recording.[12] 1988 saw the release of Pet Shop Boys' third album, Introspective, which featured Knuckles as a co-producer of the song "I Want a Dog."

In 1982 Frankie was introduced to the then unknown Jamie Principle by mutual friend Jose "Louie" Gomez, who had recorded the original vocal-dub of "Your Love" to reel-to-reel tape. Louie Gomez met up with Frankie at the local record pool (I.R.S.) and gave him a tape copy of the track. Frankie played Louie's unreleased dub mix for an entire year in his sets during which it became a crowd favorite.

Knuckles later went into the studio to re-record the track with Jamie Principle, and in 1987 helped put Your Love and Baby Wants to Ride out on vinyl after these tunes had been regulars on his reel-to-reel player at the Warehouse for a year.[12]

As house music was developing in Chicago, producer Chip E. took Knuckles under his tutelage and produced Knuckles' first recording, "You Can't Hide from Yourself"[14] Then came more production work, including Jamie Principle's "Baby Wants to Ride", and later "Tears" with Robert Owens (of Fingers, Inc.) and (Knuckles' protégé and future Def Mix associate) Satoshi Tomiie.[12]

Knuckles made numerous popular Def Classic Mixes with John Poppo as sound engineer, and Knuckles partnered with David Morales on Def Mix Productions.[15] His debut album Beyond the Mix (1991), released on Virgin Records, contained "seminal work", "The Whistle Song",[16] which was the first of four number ones on the US dance chart.[17] The Def Classic mix of Lisa Stansfield's "Change", released in the same year, also featured the whistle-like motif. Another track from the album, "Rain Falls", featured vocals from Lisa Michaelis. Eight thousand copies of the album had sold by 2004.[18] Other key remixes from this time include his rework of the Electribe 101 anthem "Talking With Myself" and Alison Limerick's "Where Love Lives".

When Junior Vasquez took a sabbatical from The Sound Factory (club) in Manhattan, Knuckles took over and launched a successful run as resident DJ.[19]

Knuckles continued to work as a remixer through the 1990s and into the next decade, reworking tracks from Michael Jackson, Luther Vandross, Diana Ross, Eternal and Toni Braxton. He released several new singles, including "Keep on Movin'" and a re-issue of an earlier hit "Bac N Da Day" with Definity Records. In 1995, he released his second album titled Welcome to the Real World. By 2004, 13,000 copies had sold.[18]

Knuckles played as resident DJ at Genesis (Osaka, Japan) for one year. (Probably in the late 80's or early 90's)[citation needed]

In 1997, Knuckles won the Grammy Award for Remixer of the Year, Non-Classical.[22] In 2004, the city of Chicago – which "became notorious in the dance community around the world for passing the so-called 'anti-rave ordinance' in 2000 that made property owners, promoters and deejays subject to $10,000 fines for being involved in an unlicensed dance party" – named a stretch of street in Chicago[23] after Knuckles, where the old Warehouse once stood, on Jefferson Street between Jackson Boulevard and Madison Street.[24] That stretch of street, called Frankie Knuckles Way, "was renamed when the city declared 25 August 2004 as Frankie Knuckles Day. The Illinois state senator who helped make it happen was Barack Obama."[22] In 2005, Knuckles was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame for his achievements.[22][23] in 2012 he decided to move to Alabama.